Sage buys controlling stake in French vendor

Accounting software giant increases European presence.

Accounting software giant Sage has bought 51 percent of French business management software company Elit Group for about £10.8m in cash.

Sage, will now make a bid to acquire the remaining 49 percent of the business from shareholders.

The purchase of Elit strengthens Sage’s position as the market leader in accounting software in France after acquiring Adonix in November for almost £80m.

Sage chief executive Paul Walker said the majority stake in Elit represented ‘a further extension of our range of industry-specific business management software’

Elit has about 3,000 medium-sized business customers and reported a £500,000 loss on a £18.4m turnover for the year ending 30 June 2005.

Copyright © 2010 Accountancy Age